Now it felt like he was right back at square one.
Not to mention that in the meantime, there was still no return call from the airline and without his precious notebook, no way for him to finish plotting out his next book in time.
To say nothing of the most pressing loss of all.
Heidi…
Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and this situation truly was going from bad to worse.
Chapter 15
Having changed Charlotte and taken the opportunity to grab a peaceful gingerbread latte while her son and Ally were in the maze, Lara returned to the parking lot, deciding to wait for them at the exit.
There was no point in dragging the baby in there now, not when she was already ornery after her diaper accident.
And knowing Ally, they would surely have made it out by now.
Sure enough, within a few minutes, the two came running through the exit.
“We made it!” Ally cried with some relief, when Lara drove over to meet them.
“See I told you!” Riley said proudly. “Mommy, you should have seen it in there. It was so hard, but I found the way. It was so much fun.”
“So glad you guys enjoyed it.”
“I never would have made it without you,” Ally laughed and the two high-fived each other as they got back into the car.
“So, any sign of green trousers guy?” Lara asked her then.
“Nope. The man you pointed out wasn’t him and I didn’t see anyone else fitting that description inside. It was a long shot but …”
“Well, we can keep an eye out at the tree-lighting ceremony later. And … wait!” Lara added, her eyes widening suddenly. The gala. You said there was a tux in there?”
The tux - ofcourse!The guy surely wouldn’t have packed a tuxedo unless he was going to The Snow Ball.
Ally felt her spirits lift, as she realised that if all else failed, maybe, just maybe, she had a real shot at finding J.T. Turner.
Chapter 16
That afternoon Lara baked peppermint fudge in the kitchen while Ally and Reilly made paper snowflakes by warmth of the fireplace, soft carols playing in the living room.
Through spending time with them all, Ally was beginning to finally understand why people traveled such great distances to enjoy the holidays with their families for the holidays.
It was so cosy and festive, it was almost enough to make her forget all about her conference calls scheduled for later that evening.
Almost.
She managed to get through them on Lara’s rickety old wifi, but must to her friend’s regret, the timing meant that she had to miss the tree-lighting ceremony.
While normally Ally would’ve jumped at the chance to forgo such a cheesy outing, she was now kinda sorry she’d scheduled any work stuff at all, she was enjoying herself so much.
Maybe now she could also understand why Mel had gone AWOL - clearly her assistant, unlike Ally, was able to leave the office behind.
But it meant that with Lara’s family partaking in more festivities, she had the cosy house all to herself, and feeling a little stuffed after all the hot chocolate and peppermint fudge, from earlier, went upstairs to read more of the book, while awaiting the others’ return.
In truth, the story had really grabbed her now, and she’d fallen a little bit in love with J.T. Turner’s writing, especially the way he seemed so emotionally intuitive and interested in his characters.
Author or not, it kind of made her want to meet the owner of the suitcase all the more, and when Ally eventually reached the final page, she instinctively went to the case and idly looked through it again.
